Burkina Faso Suspends Broadcasting of French Channel LCI for Three Months

LLCI programs are suspended for a period of three months in Burkina Faso on the packages of any distributor of pay audiovisual services as of the notification of this decision," indicated the Higher Council of Communication (CSC) of Burkina Faso. The Burkinabe media regulatory authority decided to suspend the French news channel LCI on Thursday, June 29, following the comments made by journalist Abnousse Shalmani who, at the end of April, during the program  24h Pujadas, l'info en question , allegedly provided information and made analyses on the security situation in the Sahel and in Burkina Faso. Comments linked to the deadly violence in the country and described as "false information" by the CSC.

“Terrorists” and not “jihadists”?

What does the Burkina CSC specifically accuse the TF1 group media and its journalist of? The CSC accuses the journalist of having stated that "the terrorists that she (the journalist) describes as "jihadists" are gaining more and more ground since the departure of the French army". But also of having stated that these terrorists "are advancing at full speed in the absence of any State in the conquered localities, particularly in the area of ​​the three borders between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso". The regulatory authority adds that "without mentioning a source, the journalist specifies that 40% of Burkinabe territory is occupied by "jihadists"" and that "there are thirteen thousand (13,000) dead and more than two million (2,000,000) internally displaced persons".